ABSTRACT - The objective of this paper was to determine the economic weights for the use in selection index for protein, fat and milk without fat and protein (carrier) appropriated for the payment systems of two important milk processors in the States of Parana and Minas Gerais. The prices of each one of those components were calculated, and the prices for protein, fat and carrier were 1.35, 1.89 and 0.17 R$/kg, in Parana, and 0.20, 0.80 and 0.20 R$/kg, in Minas Gerais, respectively. The feed and milking costs of these components, estimated from literature data on their energetic requirements and milk flow, were substracted from the prices, yielding economic values of 0.821, 0.880 and 0.122 R$/kg, respectively, for protein, fat and carrier, in Parana, and --0.328, -0.210 e --0.153 R$/kg, in the same order, in Minas Gerais. The economic values for protein and fat were lower (or even negative) than the values reported for those components in the most important milk producing countries, due to the low prices paid for them in Brazil
dairy cattle; economic value; milk fat; milk protein; selection index
